Edwards tells coal miner's story

John Edwards has told the story of retired coal miner James Lowe on the stump to make his point about the need to enact universal healthcare and to fight the special interests he says are blocking it.

Now, Lowe is the star of a new TV ad airing in Iowa and unveiled today by the Edwards campaign. Lowe -- who was one of the real people featured by the Globe in a story about candidates meeting real people and choosing them to personify messages in their campaigns -- had speech impediments because of a cleft palate that wasn't repaired for 50 years until a free health clinic came to his rural Virginia home last year.

"He had no voice for 50 years, because with no health care, he couldn't get a simple operation," Edwards says in the 30-second spot. "Fifty years without a voice –- in America. This is wrong. It is immoral. When are we going to stop letting drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists run this country?

"America belongs to us," the former senator from North Carolina concludes. "James Lowe finally got his voice, now it’s time for yours."